Notebook Hunter

If you’ve been waiting for a good deal on a new all-rounder with a seriously fast 3rd Gen Intel Core i7, then the HP Pavilion dv6-7031tx is for you. For $997 it costs only a bit more than a roughly equivalent all-rounder from earlier this year while being significantly more powerful. The 3rd Gen Intel Core i7-3610QM is about 15% faster than a 2nd Gen Intel Core i7-2670QM, and the better power management means the Pavilion will last longer on battery.

The partly metal exterior of the 7031tx also hides another good feature, an NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M dedicated graphics card. Compared to the once common NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M it’s about 15% faster, so the Pavilion hits hard on pretty much all fronts.

One bonus with this special that may or may not be of use is a 3-User copy of Norton 360 v6. It’s an antivirus package with some other features like parental control. The Pavilion’s already a good deal, so consider this a freebie.

We’re not sure when this special expires, but as soon as we do we’ll update the special.

See the special online here.

See a summary of the specs below.

Processor
The Pavilion features a 3rd Gen Intel Core i7-3610QM (2.3GHz), a new high-end processor that’s roughly 15% faster than equivalent 2nd Gen Intel Core i7s. In addition to being powerful it has better power management, allowing for longer usage between recharges.

Graphics
It comes with a mid-range dedicated graphics card called the NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M. It’s a reasonably powerful mid-range component that should have no problems with modern games.

RAM
4GB of RAM is enough to run several programs at once smoothly. This will be sufficient for moderately intensive image and video editing tasks as well.

Storage
A 640GB hard disk drive is large enough for important files along with plenty of programs and documents.

Screen
The Pavilion sports a 15.6in (1,366 x 768 resolution) gloss screen. The gloss screen should have better colour richness when compared to a matte screen, but the reflectiveness will make it a bit difficult to use in direct sunlight.

Portability
The Pavilion has average portability, because it weighs 2.57kg and is 32.5mm thick. It'll be straightforward to carry around.